October 5, 2016 Page 1 of 7 Clips (October 5, 2016)
October 5, 2016 Page 2 of 7 FROM THE LA TIMES (Page 3) Today s Clips Contents Angels back in playoff contention? It could happen, Scioscia says FROM ANGELS.COM (Page 4) Scioscia: Angels can return to contention in 2017 FROM USA TODAY (Page 5) The 32 Hall of Famers Mike Trout surpassed in WAR this season
October 5, 2016 Page 3 of 7 FROM THE LA TIMES Angels back in playoff contention? It could happen, Scioscia says Pedro Moura In a conference room inside the Angels clubhouse, most remnants of an 88-loss 2016 nowhere to be seen, Manager Mike Scioscia told reporters Tuesday that he was a staunch believer in his team s potential. I don t think we re as far back as, maybe, the perception is, Scioscia said. But yes, we do need to get better. As disappointing as this season was with our won-loss record, within it there were definitely some things that point to us being closer to reversing that record than going the other way and having another year like this year. He said his team s offense demonstrated so many positives in scoring 56 more runs than in 2015. And that s with our lineup, really, getting shallow, or shallower than we anticipated, from the fifth or sixth slot all the way down, Scioscia said. The potential s there to get us where we need to be quickly. We do need to bring in some talent, no doubt about it, and most likely it s going to come from the outside. While expressing confidence that third baseman Yunel Escobar s club option would be exercised, Scioscia acknowledged the need for improvement at second base, in left field and at catcher. Above all else, though, he s in pursuit of additional quality starts. He believes that, in addition to injuries, the lack of starts lasting at least six innings with no more than three earned runs was the team s downfall. The Angels were second-worst in the American League in the statistic, ahead of only Minnesota, the major leagues worst team. The one real fly in the ointment right now that really needs to be addressed is our ability to churn out quality starts from our rotation, he said. That s the heartbeat of our club, and for obvious reasons we were way behind in that this year. The Angels are counting on Garrett Richards, Tyler Skaggs, Matt Shoemaker, Ricky Nolasco and Alex Meyer to form the base of the rotation that requires fortification. Of that group, only Nolasco was healthy all season. If Richards can complete a comeback from a torn elbow ligament, Scioscia said he would not throw 115 pitches in an outing next season, which he did in back-to-back April starts. Asked about an inning limit for Skaggs, Scioscia compared him to Toronto s Aaron Sanchez, who pitched 102 innings across all levels of the Blue Jays organization in 2015, then rose to 192 innings this season. Skaggs threw 89 in 2016.
October 5, 2016 Page 4 of 7 FROM ANGELS.COM Scioscia: Angels can return to contention in 2017 Injuries, lack of depth, inconsistency doomed club this season By Austin Laymance / MLB.com ANAHEIM -- The Angels are coming off a disappointing season, but manager Mike Scioscia says he firmly believes the organization can return to contention in 2017. "I don't think we're back as far as maybe the perception is," Scioscia said Tuesday from a meeting room in the bowels of a mostly quiet Angel Stadium. The Angels suffered from a litany of injuries, plus a lack of depth and inconsistency, to finish 74-88, fourth in the American League West. Still, Scioscia sees plenty of reasons to be optimistic as the Angels prepare for a turnaround next year. "I think that as disappointing as this season was with our won-loss record -- believe me, we feel it, this is obviously not where we intended to be, and it was a rough season -- but I think within that, there were definitely some things that point towards us being closer to reversing that record than going the other way and having another year like we did this year," the manager said. The top of the lineup was not an issue, with Yunel Escobar, Kole Calhoun, Mike Trout, Albert Pujols and C.J. Cron all contributing. "I think the potential is there to put us where we need to be quickly," Scioscia said of the offense. "We do need to bring some talent in, no doubt about that." Scioscia was pleased with a retooled bullpen that rebounded down the stretch despite losing closer Huston Street and Cam Bedrosian to injury, plus Joe Smithand Fernando Salas to trades. "I think that our bullpen was reworked to a positive fashion, and that helped us to hold leads," Scioscia said. There is no question, however, the Angels need depth throughout their organization to see a significant improvement moving forward. "I think the depth issue is what we're going to be very sensitive about," Scioscia said. "We need to infuse some talent, and most likely it's going to come from outside to get that depth that we need." The Angels have question marks at second base, catcher and, in particular, left field, where they have used 27 players since the 2014 season. Scioscia would also like to get more quality starts from the rotation. The Angels had 64 quality starts this year, nine below the Major League average. The Halos ranked 12th in the AL and 24th in MLB in that category.
October 5, 2016 Page 5 of 7 "That's the heartbeat of your club," Scioscia said. "For obvious reasons, we were well behind in that this year." The rotation suffered season-ending injuries to Garrett Richards, Andrew Heaney,Nick Tropeano, Matt Shoemaker and C.J. Wilson. Meanwhile, Tyler Skaggs was limited to 49 2/3 innings in his first season back from Tommy John surgery. Heaney and Tropeano are out for next season as they recover from Tommy John. Richards, Skaggs and Shoemaker are expected to be healthy for Spring Training.Ricky Nolasco was solid after being acquired from the Twins. Wilson will not be back, but free agent Jered Weaver is a possibility to return. "I don't think it's too far of a stretch to think that we will add depth there and have a better starting rotation than we had this year," Scioscia said. "I think that some of these issues will be addressed with the guys that are here, that are coming back, coming out and getting a whole year to perform the way we know they can." The Angels were 25-20 over their final 45 games. From the end of August through the conclusion of the season, the Angels won series on the road against the Blue Jays, Tigers, Mariners and Astros -- four clubs who all were in postseason contention through the final week of the season. "We played some teams that were really playing well at the times that we went and played them, and we went head-to-head and did well," Scioscia said. "So that's why I think there's so many positives in that end, and that gives us great optimism for what we can be." FROM USA TODAY The 32 Hall of Famers Mike Trout surpassed in WAR this season Ted Berg MLB s regular season is over, which means we don t get to watch Mike Trout play baseball for several months. There s a World Series on the horizon which will distract us, but every baseball game endeavored for the remainder of 2016 will be one that lacks the sport s best player. Trout won t likely win the MVP because he s marooned on an otherwise lousy Angels team, but he turned in his fifth consecutive incredible season. Trout s first five seasons match up pretty well with the best five-season stretches enjoyed by the best players of all time. And at only 25 years old, Trout keeps flying up baseball s all-time leaderboard for Wins Above Replacement (WAR). He passed 12 Hall of Famers on that list in the first half of the season, another five in July, then nine more in August. Since the last update, Trout passed six more Hall of Famers in career WAR, meaning Mike Trout 25-year-old Mike Trout surpassed 32 Hall of Famers in career WAR this season alone.
October 5, 2016 Page 6 of 7 Trout finished his 2016 campaign with a 10.6 WAR, becoming only the 12th position player in big-league history to twice clear the 10-win threshold. Here are the six most recent Hall of Famers Trout has surpassed in career WAR, then, for the sake of completion, the remaining 26 guys he had already passed this season. 1. Kiki Cuyler: A pretty good outfielder who got kind of a late start, Cuyler was a Top 10 player for a few years in the late 1920s and a good one up until the late 1930s. He stole a lot of bases for his era and hit lots of triples, and batted.321 for his career with 2,299 hits. But despite all that, across parts of 18 seasons the Hall of Famer did not provide his clubs as much as Mike Trout has in five. 2. Hoyt Wilhelm: WAR isn t a great way to measure relief pitchers, so it seems unfair to compare the old knuckleballer Wilhelm to the young slugger Trout. Wilhelm broke into the Majors at age 29 and pitched until he was 49, most often working in a relief role that doesn t exist anymore. He threw more than 100 innings out of the bullpen in eight different seasons. 3. Jim Rice: Rice, a Red Sox slugger of the 1970s and 80s, got the Hall of Fame nod on his fifteenth and final year on the ballot. Though Rice was one of the best hitters of his era, his Cooperstown case always seemed a bit tenuous because he was a corner outfielder without any of the big offensive benchmarks for induction. No one s here to begrudge Jim Rice his Hall of Fame plaque, only to note that the 47.4 career WAR he tallied over parts of 16 big-league seasons pale to Trout s contributions in five. 4. Buck Ewing: Despite what his name suggests, Buck Ewing was not a star of golden-age Western movies so much as he was a good-hitting catcher of the late 19th century. Ewing broke in with the National League team that was in Troy, N.Y. in the early 1880s, when Troy, N.Y. was apparently a place to put a professional sports team. He is credited with the introduction of the catcher s mitt, which seems like an important piece of a equipment. 5. Johnny Evers: Evers joins Chance among players in that poem that Trout has surpassed in career WAR this season, and Tinker should fall sometime next year. Evers hated Tinker. Who knew? Not as good as Mike Trout. 6. Earl Averill: Known by the fairly awesome nickname The Earl of Snohomish, the Washington stateborn outfielder got a late start to his big-league career, but mashed from the day he broke in at age 26 in 1929. Averill s excellence lasted through a firecracker incident that cost him part of the 1935 season, but he was more or less done by 1939, and his short big-league tenure meant that he could not total as much WAR as Mike Trout. Now, for the rest of the Hall of Famers that Mike Trout surpassed in career WAR this season. Their cases and any extenuating circumstances are discussed in the posts from early July, late July, and August. 7. Lefty Gomez 8. Hack Wilson 9. Phil Rizzuto 10. Catfish Hunter 11. Jack Chesbro 12. Roger Bresnahan
October 5, 2016 Page 7 of 7 13. Goose Gossage 14. Red Schoendienst 15. Hughie Jennings 16. Earle Combs 17. Rabbit Maranville 18. Hugh Duffy 19. King Kelly 20. Chuck Klein 21. Travis Jackson 22. Addie Joss 23. Sam Thompson 24. Herb Pennock 25. Dizzy Dean 26. Edd Rousch 27. Lou Brock 28. Deacon White 29. John McGraw 30. Frank Chance 31. Heinie Manush 32. Ernie Lombardi